Eight Days a Week

The daily guide to life in the Triangle

WednesdayChapel HillBrazilian Cultural Festival
UNC Student Union Great Hall
A capoeira performance, samba band and Brazilian food are the highlights of this fundraiser for two schools in Brazil. The event, which runs from 6:30-9 p.m., is sponsored by Psi Sigma Phi Multicultural Fraternity and the Carolina Hispanic Association.

ThursdayCarrboroAuto.De.Fe
Resuscitated Pilgrim Gallery
Works by rock poster artists Jermaine Rogers, Ron Liberti, Casey Burns and Dale Flattum, plus paintings and multimedia works by David Rose and Paul Friedrichs make up this collective showing at Carr Mill Mall. Show runs through Dec. 3, so this is the last weekend to catch it.

RaleighThe Slackmates
The Pour House
Wiggly surf guitar with a lot of twang. Raleigh's Slackmates sound like the Ventures fronted by Dick Dale with Link Wray sitting in. Former Arrogance guitarist Rod Abernathy takes the lead, aided by Jeff Anderson and Dave Adams, and the rhythm section is drummer Whitt Helton and former Fabulous Knobs/The Woods bassist Jack Cornell. Their '99 release, Hot Car Girls, is considered a cult classic among those of the surf music persuasion. --Grant Britt

FridayChapel HillRTX
Local 506
Taking back the mantle of her old band Royal Trux (minus onetime bandmate/husband Neil Haggerty), Jennifer Herrema resurrects the filthy, drug-addled and brain-warped sound of the Trux circa 1993. This means murky sludge masquerading as a bass line, and scabrous guitar ladled over with distortion, and, in this incarnation, hot, spastic solos that recall early '70s rock as refracted through flea market glasses and nasty, thrift store guitars. Stonesy glam rockers Snatches of Pink open. --Chris Parker

DurhamINDY BASH!
American Tobacco Warehouse
We're not kidding when we throw a party, so look for food, drink, music and free body piercing when the Indy presents its annual holiday bash at the new American Tobacco Warehouse, 324 Blackwell St. from 8 p.m. to midnight. Come mingle with the mayors of Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh and enjoy music by Johnny White & His Elite Band. Tickets are $20 in advance (available at our Durham office or on our Web site www.indyweek.com) or $25 at the door. Proceeds benefit the Alliance of AIDS Services Carolina.

SaturdayRaleighButch Walker, American Hi-Fi
Lincoln Theatre
Butch Walker is a heavy pop-rock sonic auteur. As a producer, Walker has guided Avril Lavigne, Sevendust, Bowling for Soup and, most recently, The Donnas, though as a songwriter he put SR-71 on the map with the nauseatingly infectious "Right Now." His former outfit, The Marvelous 3, stands as one of the catchiest outfits to ever come from Georgia, and his off-kilter, wet-witted predilections are still on tap for his most recent solo spot, Letters. --GC

Carrboro
John Jorgenson Quartet ArtsCenter-- Watch as guitarist John Jorgenson (see the Desert Rose Band and the Hellecasters) channels Django Reinhardt (see France, Hot Club of) and other erstwhile virtuosos. Eclecticsm reigns with the Jorgenson Quartet, and to keep horizons expanding, International Bluegrass Music Association guitarist of the year Bryan Sutton will be sitting in. Show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18. --Rick Cornell

SundayDurhamCollin Raye
Carolina Theatre
On the '97 tribute album Stone Country, Collin Raye turned in a blistering version of the Stones' "Brown Sugar." 'Course, you go shoutin' for that one in concert and you're likely to get whupped by those who want to hear "Bible and a Bus Ticket Home" or "What if Jesus Came Back Like That." Raye performs at 4:30 and 7 p.m. Toys for Tots will be collected prior to the shows. Tickets are $27. --Grant Britt

Holiday Ho'ike
Wellness Partners in the Arts
If your Hawaiian is rusty, we'll translate: This 4-5 p.m. event is a holiday hula show. Polynesian performance group Aloha Makana and students are ready to help you escape to the islands instead of the mall. You'll see colorful and dynamic performances of dances from Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa and New Zealand along with a chance to learn a little hula yourself. 319 W. Main St., Durham. 732-1640. $5, $2 children. Mahalo, mauruuru.

MondayPittsboroBurrito Bash
General Store Cafe
This bash is also a 10th birthday party and benefit for the Music Maker Relief Foundation. Dinner (burritos of course) will be served from 6-9 p.m. with live music beginning at 7. Roy Eubanks of Siler City and northern Chatham's Dmitri Resnick are the featured performers. $12 donation gets you in and fed.

Chapel HillGrinch Readings
Bull's Head Bookshop
UNC-Chapel Hill classics professor emeritus Kenneth Reckford has made a holiday tradition of his Latin reading of Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (or, if you prefer, Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit). Reckford alternates his tale with the English version as read by English prof Tom Stumpf. The free event starts at 4 p.m.

Wednesday nextDurhamJeff Hart & Friends second Annual Christmas Show
Joe and Jo's
You make a lot of friends when, as in Jeff Hart's case, you've spent the last 20 years or so making a lot of music. For the Christmas show, Hart's recruited bandmates/pals from the Brown Mountain Lights, the Ruins, the Hanks, and a new band to be named later for a night of Christmas songs, revolving lineups, original tunes and good cheer. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. --Rick Cornell

CarrboroIsis
Cat's Cradle
Sludgy and fluid aren't words that you often see together, but both adjectives apply for Isis, a metal-breathing Boston quintet that takes grueling, distorted epicenters and twists them into serpentine post-rock atmospheres worthy of the best cello-wielding bands. Glorious, redemptive and thundering, Isis has the ability to drill holes in your eardrums one moment before dazzling them with nuance the next. Chances are, they'll make openers These Arms Are Snakes sound like pansies. --Grayson Currin